The mathematical life of Shreeram Abhyankar (Q388670)

This is an obituary remembering the work and life of Shreeram Abhyankar. He was a leading algebraist and geometer who for almost sixty years made important contributions to Mathematics. He passed away on November 2, 2013. He was active in research until his death.NEWLINENEWLINEIn this note there is a non technical but accurate description of Abhyankar's work in different fields, such as resolution of singularities, valuation theory, ramified coverings, some difficult problems of affine geometry, etc. Some of his most noteworthy work was in resolution of singularities over fields of positive characteristic, where some of the best results available at present are still essentially due to him. The author makes interesting remarks on the preferred methods of Abhyankar (explicit techniques, such as fine calculations with polynomials and series) and on aspects of his life and personality. A brief but useful bibliography including some of his more important works and papers by other authors related to them is included.